In the past, unloading and storage facilities for unloading, receiving and storing particulate materials, such as coal, required the dump truck or vehicle to be backed up to the storage bin or area for unloading the particulate material. Accordingly, this prior procedure of unloading particulate material from trucks is very time consuming and requires a large area for the trucks to maneuver, especially when very large trucks are using the facility. Moreover, there is some risk of injury or damage if a person or object is located or moves behind the truck, out of the driver's field of vision, when the truck is being backed up to the unloading bin.
Also, these prior storage facilities typically require several workers to be present to operate the storage facility. In particular, the workers of the storage facility have to process each vehicle including recording information about the origin of the load carried by the vehicle, weighing the load of particulate material and operating the storage facilities equipment for unloading particulate material from the vehicle or dump truck. Accordingly, the cost of operating such a storage facility can be very expensive.
Moreover, many of these prior unloading and storage facilities do not provide for segregation of different loads being dumped at the storage facilities. In other words, in many of these prior storage facilities loads of different qualities are often mixed together.
Examples of prior material handling facilities are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 396,197 to Dodge; 2,251,990 to Young; 3,606,050 to Silver; 3,802,584 to Sackett, Sr. et al; 4,358,238 to Ely; 4,669,674 to Oldengott et al; and 4,813,839 to Compton. Another material handling facility is disclosed in French Patent 2,249,006 to Frossard.
Examples of prior coal sampling and/or analyzing devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,314,241 to La Plante et al; 4,326,425 to Gundersen et al; 4,359,639 to Wykes et al; 4,370,201 to Lowenhaupt; 4,486,894 to Page et al; 4,531,093 to Rollwitz et al; 4,548,087 to Huck; 4,558,602 to Redding; 4,562,044 to Bohl; 4,582,992 to Atwell et al; 4,591,718 to Amer; 4,631,125 to Parks; 4,799,799 to Sapko et al; 4,841,153 to Wormald; 4,882,927 to Gould; and 4,916,719 to Kawatra et al, which are all hereby incorporated herein by reference.
In view of the above, it is apparent that there exists a need for a vehicle unloading facility, which is relatively fast, efficient, safe and economical to operate. This invention addresses this need in the art, along with other needs which will become apparent to those skilled in the art once given this disclosure.
While the description of this invention herein is directed at the unloading, receiving and transporting of particulate material, the facilities according to this invention could be designed to handle other materials, including liquids.